Isolated nanographene crystals for nano-floating gate in charge trapping memory

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Electronics Engineering

Background:

• Graphene's unique electronic properties, low dimensionality, and robustness make it promising for charge storage in memory devices.
• The demand for miniaturized and scaled-up devices necessitates advanced materials like nanostructured graphene.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and investigate a novel non-volatile charge trapping memory device.
• To utilize isolated and uniformly distributed nanographene crystals as a nano-floating gate.
• To demonstrate controllable capacity and excellent uniformity in the nanographene memory.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a non-volatile charge trapping memory structure.
• Utilizing nanographene crystals as the nano-floating gate.
• Employing different tunneling layers to tune memory performance.

Main Results:

• Achieved a large memory window of 4.5 V at a low operation voltage of ±8 V.
• Demonstrated excellent data retention exceeding 10 years.
• Exhibited high chemical and thermal stability up to 1000°C.
• Showcased tunable memory performance by varying tunneling layers.

Conclusions:

• The nanographene charge trapping memory offers significant advantages in performance and stability.
• Fabrication is compatible with existing semiconductor processes, enabling low-cost integrated nanoscale memory.
• This technology holds promise for future advanced memory applications.